History of the Awards

This funding program is exclusively for Rozsa Foundation Training participants who have completed Rozsa Horizons of Arts Leadership to design and test bold exploratory ideas intended to address a complex management or operational challenge in their organization.​​​

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Building on the frameworks and tools introduced in the program, including the Shaping the Shift module, this program provides modest funding of up to $5,000 to help arts organizations across Alberta take structured, evidence-informed risks to change how they manage, govern, resource, and sustain themselves.

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DEADLINES

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There are two deadlines for Small Experiments Funding in 2026.

Friday, July 31, 2026
Friday, October 9, 2026  

 

Applications are due by 11:59pm on the deadline date.​​​

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Horizons alumni have up to two years to apply for funding post-program. For example, Horizons 2026 alumni must apply by the summer of 2028. 

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Funding decisions are typically made within 6-weeks of the application deadline. 

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WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

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We are seeking to fund experiments that:

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• Address a genuine management or operational complex challenge, related to areas such as governance structures, financial models, audience relationship management, staff culture, decision-making processes, producing models, or community accountability mechanisms

• Are grounded in a complex, open question that your organization is truly curious about, and not one with an obvious answer

• Represent a meaningful departure from how your organization currently operates, not a refinement of existing practice, but a genuine divergence from it

• Are designed to surface learning, whether the experiment “works” or not

• Are Safe-Fail, not Fail-Safe, meaning the experiment is bounded enough that a negative outcome won’t destabilize the organization, but ambitious enough to generate meaningful insight

• Could be scaled up or implemented in a bolder way should the experiment provide sufficient learning

 

We are not looking for pilot programs that are expected to succeed. We want to support genuine experiments: structured inquiries into complex questions your organization does not yet know the answer to.

 

Building On Your Horizons Experience

 

You may choose to:

• Further develop an experiment that you began in the Shaping the Shift module, expanding on the design work you undertook during the program and bringing it to life within your organization; or

• Apply the approaches you learned to a new complex question, using the experimental design frameworks from Horizons to explore a different challenge your organization is currently facing

 

Either pathway is welcome. What matters is that the experiment reflects genuine organizational inquiry and draws on the adaptive thinking skills developed through your Horizons experience.

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The Experimental Approach

 

This funding program is grounded in the idea that in conditions of complexity and uncertainty, small, intentional experiments are a more honest and productive strategy than large-scale planning.

 

Organizations operating in complex environments cannot reliably predict outcomes. What they can do is design thoughtful tests, pay careful attention to what happens, and use that learning to inform the next step.

 

A good experiment in this framework:

• Is small enough to be safe if it fails

• Is specific enough to be legible so you can observe what happens

• Is radical enough to matter in that it challenges an assumption, not just a procedure

 

Safe-Fail, not Fail-Safe

 

A fail-safe approach is designed to prevent failure, it hedges and minimizes risk, and defaults to the known. It is the logic behind most organizational planning, and it is entirely appropriate for managing complicated, well-understood problems.

 

A safe-fail approach accepts that failure is possible, even likely, and designs for it deliberately. The goal is not to prevent a bad outcome but to ensure that if the experiment doesn’t go as expected, the consequences are contained, the learning is preserved, and the organization emerges with greater insight than it had before. Safe-fail experiments are how organizations develop the capacity to navigate genuinely complex, unpredictable terrain.

 

Divergence From Previous Practice

 

A funded experiment must represent a genuine departure from how your organization currently does things. This is not a program for incremental improvement or optimization of existing approaches. It is a program designed to help you test something that your organization has not tried before that, if it works, would meaningfully shift how you operate; and if it doesn’t, would still tell you something important about why your current approach persists.

 

In your application, you will be asked to describe clearly how the proposed experiment diverges from your organization’s existing practice, and what assumption or habitual pattern it is designed to challenge. Experiments that are extensions of current activity, or that describe doing more of what already works, are not strong fits for this program.

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This funding program is grounded in the idea that in conditions of complexity and uncertainty, small, intentional experiments are a more honest and productive strategy than large-scale planning.

 

Organizations operating in complex environments cannot reliably predict outcomes. What they can do is design thoughtful tests, pay careful attention to what happens, and use that learning to inform the next step.

 

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FUNDING AMOUNTS

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You can apply for up to $5,000. 

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WHO CAN APPLY?

 

You are eligible to apply if: 

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• You are a Horizons graduate that completed the program in the last two years.

• You are applying on behalf of the organization you represented during Horizons.

• Your organization is in support of your application to the funding program.

• Your organization is Alberta-based.

• Your organization is arts-focused or is an organization engaging the arts to fulfill its mission.

• Your organization is a registered charity and/or registered non-profit.

 

Applications must be made by the Horizons graduate. If the graduate exits the organization after they have completed the program, the organization cannot apply to this funding program to further their Small Experiment. Other funding opportunities may be available - please contact us to discuss potential avenues for support.

 

Completion of Horizons does not guarantee project funding.​​​